May 1, 2013

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A judge has chosen a week in late August for the execution of a man convicted of killing four people in 1993 at the Colorado pizza restaurant Chuck E. Cheese in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

The judge said Wednesday that Nathan Dunlap could be sentenced the week of Aug. 18. But the judge also set a hearing June 10 to hear arguments from Dunlap’s attorneys, who are challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty.

Dunlap’s attorneys say making inmates wait on death row for decades facing possible execution is cruel and unusual punishment.

Dunlap was convicted in 1996 of killing four employees of a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora.

He could avoid execution if Gov. John Hickenlooper grants him clemency. Hickenlooper plans private meetings in coming days with victims’ families and others regarding Dunlap.